F 
ISO 

."Pi  3 


THE   TERRITORY   OF 
COLORADO 


BY 


FREDERIC   L.   PAXSON 


.   PAX' 


REPRINTED   FROM    THE 


VOL.  XII.,  NO.  i  OCTOBER,  1906 


[Reprinted  from  THE  AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  REVIEW,  Vol.  XII.,  No.  i,  Oct.,  1906.] 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  COLORADO 

IT  is  commonly  taken  for  granted  that  the  Kansas-Nebraska  legis- 
lation of  1854  settled  the  territorial  question  in  the  United  States, 
and  that  the  territorial  question  itself  was  only  a  single  phase  of 
the  larger  question  of  slavery.  The  tyranny  of  the  slavery  problem 
over  the  historical  mind  has  completely  subordinated  the  problem 
of  the  expansion  of  the  agricultural  West,  the  settlement  of  new 
areas,  and  the  providing  of  adequate  institutions  of  government  for 
the  citizens  of  the  frontier.  The  erection  of  the  territory  of  Colo- 
rado in  1861  is  itself  proof  that  slavery  was  not  in  its  own  day  de- 
structive of  interest  in  all  other  topics,  however  it  may  have  im- 
peded their  consideration,  and  is  an  illuminative  precedent  in  show- 
ing the  manner  in  which  territorial  problems  have  been  forced  upon 
Congress  and  ultimately  adjusted. 

The  acquisition  of  the  southwest  at  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe- 
Hidalgo  in  1848  extended  the  legal  frontier  of  the  United  States  far 
beyond  the  frontier  of  actual  settlement  and  compelled  Congress  to 
give  serious  thought  to  the  subdivision  of  large  and  relatively  un- 
inhabited areas  of  public  lands.  The  act  of  May  30,  1854,  which  has 
commonly  been  misunderstood  as  saying  the  last  important  word 
upon  the  territorial  question,  merely  marked  the  end  of  the  earliest 
period  of  preliminary  adjustment.  The  residuum  of  the  Louisiana 
purchase  and  the  lands  acquired  through  the  Mexican  War  were  at 
last  distributed  among  two  states,  California  and  Texas,  and  four 
territories.  The  two  territorial  organizations  of  New  Mexico  and 
Utah  covered  the  whole  area  between  California  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  while  the  fortieth  parallel  divided  most  of  the  unorgan-*- 
ized  area  east  of  the  mountains  into  Kansas  and  Nebraska  territories. 

The  distribution  in  effect  at  the  end  of  the  session  of  1854  was 
only  preliminary,  and  within  three  years  Congress  had  begun  to  con- 
sider the  division  of  three  of  these  territories,  Nebraska,  Utah,  and 
New  Mexico,  whose  gigantic  size  precluded  the  rigorous  execution 
of  law  by  single  territorial  establishments.  In  the  first  session  of 
the  thirty-fifth  Congress,  1857-1858,  it  was  finally  proposed  to  di- 
vide two  of  these  territories,  creating  Arizona  in  the  western  end  of 
New  Mexico  and  Nevada  in  the  western  end  of  Utah  ;x  while  the 
next  session  brought  a  bill  to  erect  Dakota  in  the  northern  end  of 

1  Congressional  Globe,  35  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  pp.  62,  2090. 

(53) 


54  F.  L.  Pax  son 

Nebraska.1  The  division  was  required  by  various  facts  of  popula- 
tion and  migration.  The  location  of  the  great  Pacific  trails,  the  dis- 
covery of  silver-mines,  the  willingness  to  restrict  the  territory  of  the 
Mormons,  all  appear  as  inspiring  a  further  subdivision  of  the  scantily 
populated  West. 

The  Congress  of  1857-1858  passed  no  laws  for  the  erection  of 
new  territories  in  the  areas  marked  out  in  the  debates.  There  is 
some  internal  evidence  throughout  these  and  later  debates  that  the 
young  sponsors  of  the  new  Republican  party  were  interested  in 
territorial  development  as  a  means  of  continuing  the  antislavery 
argument  which  all  parties  had  agreed  in  1854  to  forget.  But  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  motives  underlying  the  agitation,  the  argu- 
ments make  entirely  clear  the  facts  that  the  boundaries  of  1854 
were  only  temporary  and  that  the  great,  shapeless  territories  must 
some  day  be  divided.  The  session  of  1857-1858  contented  itself 
with  the  suggestion  of  two  new  territories  of  Nevada  and  Arizona ; 
when  the  same  Congress  met  for  its  second  session  in  1858-1859, 
two  more  new  territorial  projects,  those  of  Dakota  and  Jefferson,  had 
been  added  to  its  list. 

In  the  migrations  to  the  far  West,  beginning  to  be  heavy  in  the 
forties,  the  two  principal  routes  had  branched  from  the  Missouri 
River  near  its  northern  bend  on  the  western  boundary  of  the  state 
of  Missouri.  From  this  point  the  northern  or  Oregon  route  had  run 
w'estwardly  along  the  Platte,  the  southern  or  Santa  Fe  route  along 
the  Arkansas.  And  at  the  one  hundred  and  second  meridian  the  two 
trails  were  already  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  apart,  and  were  devi- 
ating still  further  to  the  northwest  and  southwest  respectively.2 
The  angle  between  the  trails  covered  the  heart  of  the  "great  Ameri- 
can desert  ",  which  Major  Long  had  described  in  1820  as  utterly 
uninhabitable  for  man,  and  which  men  had  since  1820  been  willing 
to  take  at  the  word  of  the  explorer.  It  was  this  uninviting,  unin- 
habited area  which  in  the  fall  of  1858  appeared  before  Congress.  It 
demanded  not  a  slicing  up  of  existing  great  territories,  but  a  new 
grouping  of  lands  taken  out  of  the  crest  of  the  Rockies  and  in  part 

1  Globe,  December  21,  1858,  p.  159. 

2  An  act  of  Congress  of  May  19,  1846,  provided  for  the  erection  of  forts  along 
the  Oregon  route.     .Fort  Kearney  was  established  on  the  Platte  310  miles  west  of 
Fort  Leavenworth,  and   Fort  Laramie  337   miles  beyond  Fort   Kearney,   in   1848. 
Ex.  Doc.  5,  31   Cong.,  i   Sess.,  Serial  569,  pp.  94,  225.     Fort  Kearney  became  the 
most   important  post   on   the   northern   route   and   was   not   abandoned   until    1871. 
House  Ex.  Doc.   12,  43   Cong.,  2   Sess.,   Serial   1164.     Lieutenant-colonel  William 
Gilpin    was    on   July    20,    1847,    detailed    to    a    station    near   the    crossing    of   the 
Arkansas  to  keep  the  peace  along  the   Sante  Fe  trail.     Ex.  Doc.   i,  30   Cong.,   i 
Sess.,  pp.  136,  139. 


The  Territory  of  Colorado  5  5 

from  every  one  of  the  territories  of  the  central  and  south  west. 
To  this  area  those  who  advocated  the  new  project  gave  the  name 
of  the  Territory  of  Jefferson. 

Since  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  and  the  rush  of  the 
forty-niners  along  the  overland  trails  there  had  always  been  bodies  of 
prospectors  scattered  over  the  mountain  region.  Rumors  of  gold 
discoveries  in  the  desert  triangle  had  been  heard  early  in  the  fifties, 
while  the  panic  of  1857  sent  fresh  bands  of  men  to  try  their  luck  in 
the  great  game.  In  the  year  1858  numerous  parties  were  exploring 
the  lands  between  the  Arkansas  and  the  Platte,  and  the  arrival  at 
Omaha  on  January  5,  i859/  of  several  quills  filled  with  gold-dust 
proved  to  the  Missouri  settlers  that  success  had  rewarded  the  pro- 
longed search,  and  started  a  new  westward  movement  of  large  pro- 
portions to  the  Pike's  Peak  country. 

The  city  of  Denver,  named  for  the  governor  of  Kansas  territory, 
became  the  settlement  around  which  the  Pike's  Peak  country  grouped 
itself  in  the  winter  of  1858-1859.  Boulder  and  Golden,  Colorado 
City  and  Pueblo  became  secondary  centres,  each  situated  as  Denver 
was,  at  a  point  from  which  trade  and  travel  branched  from  the 
great  trails  and  entered  the  valleys  leading  to  the  mining-camps.2 

As  early  as  June,  1858,  the  forks  of  the  South  Platte  and  Cherry 
Creek  were  being  examined  by  prospectors.  As  the  summer  and 
fall  advanced  more  adventurers  appeared ;  the  names  of  Montana, 
Highland,  Auraria,  and  St.  Charles  came  to  designate  settlements  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  forks;  and  by  November  the  inclusive  name  of 
Denver  was  heard.3 

In  a  governmental  way  the  new  camp  of  Denver  was  situated 
in  Arapahoe  County,  Kansas.  But  Arapahoe  County  had  never  been 
organized,  and  remained  only  a  name  until  after  the  legislature  of 
Kansas  abolished  it  in  February,  1859.*  The  settlers  themselves 
saw  from  the  start  that  the  five  hundred  miles  of  trail  between  the 
diggings  and  the  territorial  capital  forbade  protection  from  as  well 

1  Transactions  and  Reports  of  the  Nebraska  State  Historical  Society,  II.  315. 
One  of  the  men  mentioned  as  bringing  the  gold,  Albert  B.  Steinberger,  was  elected 
a  delegate  to   Congress  by  the  Auraria  meeting  of  November  6,    1858.     He   de- 
serted his  mission  and  never  reached  Washington.     His  later  romantic  career  in 
a  Pacific  kingdom  is  described  in  House  Ex.  Doc.  161,  44  Cong.,   i    Sess.,  Serial 
1691,  125  pp. 

2  An  old  military  trail  connecting  Fort  Union  and  Fort  Laramie  ran  through 
some  and  within  easy  distance  of  all  these  towns.     Jerome  C.  Smiley,  History  of 
Denver  (Denver,  1901),  229. 

3  The  best  detailed  account  of  these  earliest  settlements  is  found  ibid.,  200 
et  seqq. 

*  Helen  G.  Gill,  "  The  Establishment  of  Counties  in  Kansas ",  Kansas  His- 
torical Collections,  VIII.  452. 


56  F.  L.  Paxson 

as  interference  by  that  government,  and  that  their  political  salvation 
lay  nearer  home.  They  saw  that  four  territorial  governments  were 
involved  in  the  Pike's  Peak  country,  and  that  the  country  was  in 
itself  an  economic  unit.  It  was  this  understanding  which  pressed 
upon  Congress  early  in  1859  with  a  new  territorial  scheme,  and  which 
even  earlier  than  this  had  produced  a  spontaneous  political  activity  in 
the  mountain  camps. 

The  beginnings  of  Colorado  politics  are  to  be  found  in  the  move- 
ment originating  in  Denver  in  November,  1858,  and  culminating  in 
the  territorial  organization  of  Jefferson  in  November,  1859.  The 
origin  seems  to  have  been  in  a  typical  early  snowfall  that  drove  the 
miners  into  their  cabins  in  November,  1858,  and  by  enforcing  idle- 
ness upon  them  gave  an  opportunity  for'  talking  politics.1  Perhaps 
two  hundred  miners  were  in  Denver  when  the  snowfall  came,  of 
whom  some  thirty-five  attended  a  meeting  on  November  6,  and 
determined  to  erect  a  new  government  for  the  Pike's  Peak  country. 
"  Just  to  think  ",  wrote  one  of  them,  "  that  within  two  weeks  of  the 
arrival  of  a  few  dozen  Americans  in  a  wilderness,  they  set  to  work 
to  elect  a  Delegate  to  the  United  States  Congress,  and  ask  to  be  set 
apart  as  a  new  Territory!  But  we  are  of  a  fast  race  and  in  a  fast 
age  and  must  prod  along."2  To  secure  an  attention  to  their  demand 
they  chose  one  Hiram  J.  Graham  to  appear  in  their  behalf  at  Wash- 
ington, and  one  A.  J.  Smith  to  represent  them  in  the  legislature  of 
Kansas.3  The  arrival  of  these  men  in  Omaha  seems  at  once  to  have 
confirmed  the  report  of  the  discovery  of  placer  gold  in  the  western 
streams  and  to  have  announced  the  birth  of  a  new  centre  of  popu- 
lation. Four  months  after  this  first  election  a  new  political  whim 
struck  Denver  camp,  and  a  set  of  local  officers  was  chosen  March  28, 
1859,  f°r  Arapahoe  County,  Kansas,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Kansas 
had  on  February  7,  1859,  foreseen  the  coming  emigration,  reshaped 
Arapahoe,  and  cut  out  of  it  five  new  counties  of  Montana,  Oro, 
El  Paso,  Fremont,  and  Broderick.4  The  only  significance  of  this 
March  election,  for  its  officers  seem  never  to  have  held  power,  lies 
in  the  fact  that  nearly  eight  hundred  votes  were  then  cast.  Already 

1  Ovando  J.  Hollister,  in  his  Mines  of  Colorado  (Springfield,  Mass.,  1867),  17, 
is  responsible  for  the  statement  that  ten  inches  of  snow  fell  on  October  31,  1858. 

2  Ibid.,  1 8. 

3  Ibid.,  90 ;  Smiley,  305,  530  ;  Frank  Fossett,  Colorado :  a  Historical,  Descrip- 
tive and  Statistical  Work  on  the  Rocky  Mountain  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Region 
(Denver,  1876),  17;  Frank  Hall,  History  of  the  State  of  Colorado  (Chicago,  1889- 
1895,  4  vols.),  I.  208;   H.  H.  Bancroft,  History  of  the  Pacific  States,  vol.  XX., 
Nevada,  Colorado,  and  Wyoming  (San  Francisco,  1890),  402. 

*  Smiley,  246,  531;  Hall,  I.  183;  Bancroft,  402;  Baskin  and  Co.,  History  of 
the  City  of  Denver,  Arapahoe  County,  and  Colorado  (Chicago,  1880),  187. 


The  Territory  of  Colorado  5  7 

the  heavy  migration  of  1859  had  begun  to  throw  its  thousands  along 
the  trails  to  Denver.  Whether  these  thousands  were  sixty  or  one 
hundred,  no  one  can  tell  to-day;  but  it  is  certain  that  after  half  or 
more  of  them  had  gone  home  in  disgust  there  remained  in  Jefferson 
nearly  thirty  thousand  settlers  to  reiterate  the  demand  that  Congress 
provide  a  government  for  them  and  to  maintain  their  provisional 
territory  for  the  interim. 

The  mission  of  Hiram  J.  Graham  to  the  second  session  of  the 
thirty-fifth  Congress  failed  to  produce  either  an  enabling  or  a  terri- 
torial act.  His  arrival  in  Washington  in  January,  1859,  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  appearance  of  his  territorial  scheme  in  the  House  when 
A.  J.  Stephens  introduced  a  bill  for  the  erection  of  Jefferson  Terri- 
tory.1 Grow  of  Pennsylvania  moved  to  amend  the  name  to  Osage, 
and  when  it  was  reported  back  from  the  Committee  on  Territories 
on  February  16,  it  was  tabled  without  any  serious  discussion  or 
opposition.2  The  fate  that  had  postponed  the  erection  of  new  terri- 
tories in  1858  continued  to  postpone  in  1859  when  Jefferson  had  been 
added  to  the  list.  Slavery  debate  forbade  territorial  legislation,  and 
the  single  scheme  which  had  a  real  population  behind  it  was  left 
without  local  or  legal  government,  and  was  forced  to  find  its  way 
through  1859  until  the  next  session  of  Congress  might  perhaps  attend 
to  business  and  provide  for  it  a  legal  frame. 

The  migration  of  1859  multiplied  the  population  of  Denver  many 
times  and  increased  the  need  for  orderly  government  as  well  by 
the  character  as  by  the  number  of  its  inhabitants.  A  knowledge  that 
no  aid  from  Congress  could  be  had  for  at  least  a  year  revived  the 
local  movement  until  it  induced  a  group  of  pioneers  to  hold  a 
caucus,  with  William  Larimer  in  the  chair,  on  April  n,  to  consider 
the  local  situation.3  As  a  result  of  this  caucus  a  call  issued  'for  a 
convention  of  representatives  of  the  neighboring  mining-camps  to 
meet  in  the  same  place  four  days  later.  And  on  April  15,  1859, 
the  camps  of  Fountain  City,  El  Dorado  and  El  Paso,  Arapahoe, 
Auraria,  and  Denver  met  through  their  delegates,  "  being  fully  im- 
pressed with  the  belief,  from  early  and  recent  precedents,  of  the 
power  and  benefits  and  duty  of  self-government  ",  and  feeling  an  im- 
perative necessity  "  for  an  immediate  and  adequate  government  for 
the  large  population  now  here  and  soon  to  be  among  us  ...  and 

1  His  petition  was  presented  in  the  Senate  on  January  27.     Cong.  Globe,  35 
Cong.,  2  Sess.,  p.  621.     Stephens  reported  bills  in  the  House  for  Dakota,  Arizona, 
and  Jefferson  territories  on  January  28,  1859.     Ibid.,  657. 

2  Ibid.,  1065. 

3  Hall,  I.  184;  Smiley,  306;  Bancroft,  403. 


58  F.  L.  Pax  son 

also  believing  that  a  territorial  government  is  not  such  as  our  large 
and  peculiarly  situated  population  demands  'V 

The  deliberations  thus  informally  started  ended  in  a  formal  call 
for  a  constitutional  convention  to  meet  in  Denver  on  the  first  Mon- 
day in  June  for  the  purpose,  as  an  address  to  the  people  stated,  of 
framing  a  constitution  for  a  new  "  State  of  Jefferson  ".  "  Shall  it 
be  ",  the  address  demanded,  "  the  government  of  the  knife  and  the 
revolver,  or  shall  we  unite  in  forming  here  in  our  golden  country, 
among  the  ravines  and  gulches  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the 
fertile  valleys  of  the  Arkansas  and  the  Platte,  a  new  and  independent 
State?"2  With  a  generosity  characteristic  of  the  frontier  the  con- 
vention determined  the  boundaries  of  the  prospective  state  as  the 
one  hundred  and  second  and  one  hundred  and  tenth  meridians  of 
longitude,  and  the  thirty-seventh  and  forty-third  parallels  of  lati- 
tude— an  area  including,  in  addition  to  the  present  state  of  Colorado, 
large  portions  of  Utah  and  Nebraska  and  nearly  half  of  Wyoming. 
The  arrival  in  Denver,  a  week  after  this  convention,  of  William  N. 
Byers  was  important  in  that  it  brought  an  active  advocate  of  state- 
hood into  the  field,  and  produced  on  April  23  the  first  number  of  the 
Rocky  Mountain  News.3 

When  the  statehood  convention,  called  on  April  15,  met  in  Den- 
ver in  June  6,  the  time  was  inopportune  for  concluding  the  move- 
ment, for  large  numbers  of  the  pioneers  who  had  rushed  out  over 
the  plains  for  "  Pike's  Peak  or  Bust  "  were  already  on  their  dis- 
consolate way  back,  "busted  ".  The  first  reputation  of  the  diggings 
was  based  upon  light  and  exaggerated  discoveries  of  placer  gold ; 
when  productive  lodes  came  into  view  they  called  for  more  capital 
and  experience  than  most  of  the  early  prospectors  possessed.4  The 

1  The  first  issue  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  News,  April  23,   1859,  contains  ai» 
account  of  these  meetings  and  texts  of  the  resolutions  and  addresses.     The  news- 
paper at  once  becomes  an  invaluable  source.     Smiley,  306-309. 

2  The   address   was  drawn  by  a  committee   of  five,   and  was  printed  in   the 
Rocky  Mountain  News,  May  7,  1859.     Smiley,  309. 

3  The  State   Historical   and   Natural   History   Society  of   Colorado   has   in   its 
collection  a  file  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Neivs  which  is  substantially  complete,  and 
which  has  been  used  in  the  preparation  of  this  paper.     Byers   reached   Denver 
April  21   with  his  printing  outfit.     He  had  prepared  for  prompt  issue  by  printing 
in  Omaha  two  pages   of  his  first  four-page  sheet.     But  even  thus  the  honor  of 
the    first    issue    in    Colorado    is    contested    by    John    L.    Merrick's    Cherry    Creek 
Pioneer.     Both  papers  appeared  first  on  April  23,   1859,  Merrick's  first  being  also 
his  last,  for  Byers  at  once  bought  him   out  and  gained  control   of  the  field  for 
himself.     Smiley,  247-248;  Hall,  I.   184;   Bancroft,  527,  has  a  useful  note  upon 
Colorado  journalism. 

*  Horace  Greeley  visited  Denver,  arriving  June  6,  1859.  Horace  Greeley,  An 
Overland  Journey,  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco,  in  the  Summer  of  1859 
(New  York,  1860),  137. 


The  Territory  of  Colorado  59 

height  of  the  gold  boom  was  over  by  June,  and  the  return  migra- 
tion made  it  somewhat  doubtful  whether  any  permanent  population 
would  be  left  in  the  country  to  need  a  state.     So  the  convention 
met  on  June  6,  appointed  some  eight  drafting  committees,  and  ad- 
journed, to  await  developments,  until  August  I.1     But  by  the  first 
of  August  a  line  had  been  drawn  between  the  confident  and  the 
discouraged  elements  in  the  population,  and  for  six  days  the  con- 
vention worked  upon  the  question  of  statehood.     As  to  permanency, 
there  was  by  this  time  no  doubt ;  but  the  body  divided  into  two  nearly 
equal  groups,  one  advocating  immediate  statehood,  the  other  shrink- 
ing from  the  heavy  taxation  incident  to  a  state  establishment  and 
so  preferring  a  territorial  government  with  a  federal  treasury  to  meet 
the  bills.     The  body,  too  badly  split  to  reach  a  conclusion  itself, 
compromised   by   preparing   the    way    for   either    development   and 
leaving  the  choice  to  public  vote.     A  state  constitution  was  drawn 
up  on  one  hand  ;2  while  on  the  other  was  prepared  a  memorial  to 
Congress  praying   for  a  territorial  government  ;3   and  both   docu- 
ments were  submitted  to  a  vote  on  September  5,   1859,  when  the 
memorial  was  chosen  instead  of  the  constitution.4     Upon  October 
3  another  election  was  held,  pursuant  to  the  memorial,  and  a  dele- 
gate to  Congress  was  chosen  in  the  person  of  Beverly  D.  Williams, 
who  was  local  agent  of  a  new  Leavenworth  and  Pike's  Peak  Express 
Company  which  had  run  its  first  coach  into  Denver  in  May,5  and 
whose  zeal  for  mail  contracts  may  have  inspired  some  of  his  earnest- 
ness for  Congressional  countenance.  C^QCTOlt  MidfliiJI 
The   adoption   of   the   territorial   memorial   failed   to   meet   the 
need   for  immediate   government   or   to   prevent  the   advocates   of 
such    government    from    working    out    a    provisional    arrangement 
pending  the  action  of   Congress.     These   advocates  held   a   mass- 
meeting  in  Denver  on  September  24, 6  while  on  the  day  that  Wil- 
liams was  elected  to  Congress,  October  3,  they  also  elected  dele- 
gates for  a  preliminary  territorial  constitutional  convention,  and  upon 

1  Smiley,  277 ;  Hall,  I.  208 ;  Bancroft,  404,  gives  lists  of  officers ;  Rocky  Moun- 
tain News,  June   n,   1859. 

2  Byers,  in  an  editorial,  ibid.,  July  23,  had  supported  the  statehood  argument 
by  reference  to  the  admission  clause  in  the  Louisiana  treaty  of  1803. 

3  The  Rocky  Mountain  News  printed  on  August  6  the  journal  of  the  conven- 
tion; on  August  13  the  constitution;  and  on  August  20  the  memorial. 

4  Smiley,  311  ;  Rocky  Mountain  News,  September  17,  reports  the  vote. 

6  Smiley,  251  ;  Alice  Polk  Hill,  Tales  of  the  Colorado  Pioneers  (Denver, 
1884),  41  ;  Alexander  Majors,  Seventy  Years  on  the  Frontier  (Chicago  and  New 
York,  1893),  165,  228;  Majors  was  a  member  of  the  great  freighting  firm  of 
Russell,  Majors,  and  Waddell,  which  was  ultimately  wrecked  when  the  "  Pony 
Express"  which  had  been  started  in  April,  1860,  collapsed. 

6  Rocky  Mountain  News,  September  29;  Smiley,  312. 


60  F.  L.  Pax  son 

October  10  this  convention  met.  "  Here  we  go,"  commented  Byers, 
"  a  regular  triple-headed  government  machine ;  south  of  40  deg.,  we 
hang  on  to  the  skirts  of  Kansas;  north  of  40  deg.,  to  those  of  Ne- 
braska; straddling  the  line,  we  have  just  elected  a  Delegate  to  the 
United  States  Congress  from  the  '  Territory  of  Jefferson  ',  and  ere 
long,  we  will  have  in  full  blast  a  provisional  government  of  Rocky 
mountain  growth  and  manufacture."1  In  this  convention  of  Oc- 
tober 10,  1859,  the  name  of  Jefferson  was  retained  for  the  new  terri- 
tory, the  boundaries  of  April  15  were  retained,  and  a  government 
similar  to  the  highest  type  of  territorial  establishment  was  provided 
for.2  If  the  convention  had  met  pursuant  to  an  enabling  act,  its 
career  could  not  have  been  more  dignified.  It  adopted  a  constitution 
with  little  trouble,  and  then  dissolved  after  calling  an  election  for 
territorial  officers  for  October  24,  1859.  The  election  of  this  day' 
seems  to  have  been  orderly  and  generally  participated  in,  for  the 
need  of  government  was  obvious.  It  resulted  in  the  choice  of  a  leg- 
islature and  an  executive  staff  headed  by  Governor  Robert  W.  Steele 
of  Ohio.3  Two  weeks  later  Steele  met  his  assembly  and  delivered 
his  first  inaugural  address. 

The  territory  of  Jefferson,  which  thus  came  into  existence  on 
November  7,  1859,  is  one  of  the  most  illuminating  incidents  in  the 
history  of  the  American  frontier.  From  the  days  of  the  State  of 
Franklin4  the  frontiersman  has  always  resented  his  isolation,  and  upon 
receiving  evidence  of  governmental  neglect  has  always  been  ready 
to  erect  his  own  government  and  care  for  himself  in  a  political  way. 
There  are  many  incidents  in  the  history  of  statehood  movements  in 
which  settlement  has  rushed  forward  more  rapidly  than  legal  in- 
stitutions, with  results  in  the  erection  of  illegitimate  provisional  gov- 
ernments. But  none  of  these  illegitimate  governments  has  been 
erected  more  deliberately  or  conducted  with  more  propriety  than 
this  territory  of  Jefferson.  The  fundamental  principle  of  American 
government  which  Byers  expresses  is  applicable  at  all  times  in 
similar  situations : 

We  claim  [he  wrote  in  his  Rocky  Mountain  News]  that  any  body, 
or  community  of  American  citizens,  which  from  any  cause  or  under  any 
circumstance,  is  cut  off  from,  or  from  isolation  is  so  situated,  as  not 

1  Rocky  Mountain  News,  October  6. 

2  Hollister,  92;   Smiley,  314;   Bancroft,  406;  text  in  Rocky  Mountain  News, 
October  20. 

3  Binckley  and   Hartwell,  Southern  Colorado   (Canon  City,   1879),   5  ;   Smiley, 
3i5. 

4  George  Henry  Alden,  "  The   State  of  Franklin  ",   in  AMERICAN   HISTORICAL 
REVIEW,   VIII.    271-289;    see   also   the   Clarksville    (Indiana)    Resolves,    ibid.,    II. 
691-693. 


The  Territory  of  Colorado  6 1 

to  be  under  any  active  and  protecting  branch  of  the  central  government, 
have  a  right,  if  on  American  soil,  to  frame  a  government,  and  enact 
such  laws  and  regulations  as  may  be  necessary  for  their  own  safety, 
protection,  and  happiness,  always  with  the  condition  precedent,  that  they 
shall,  at  the  earliest  moment  when  the  central  government  shall  extend 
an  effective  organization,  and  laws  over  them,  give  it  their  unqualified 
support  and  obedience.1 

And  the  life  of  the  spontaneous  commonwealth  thus  called  into 
existence  is  a  creditable  witness  to  the  American  instinct  for  orderly 
government.2 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  1859,  the  provisional  territory 
of  Jefferson  was  in  operation,  while  its  delegates  were  in  Wash- 
ington pressing  the  need  for  governmental  action.  One  of  the 
agents,  B.  D.  Williams,  was  elected  on  October  3,  1859  ;3  the  other, 
George  M.  Willing,4  claimed  to  be  the  regular  choice  at  this  elec- 
tion, and  though  apparently  not  recognized  at  Washington,  reiterated 
the  arguments  of  Williams  and  the  territorial  memorials.  Both 
houses  of  Congress  gave  some  heed  to  the  facts  thus  presented.  They 
received  from  President  Buchanan  on  February  20,  1860,  a  message 
transmitting  the  petition  from  the  Pike's  Peak  country,5  and  bills 
to  meet  the  demand  were  at  least  introduced  into  each  house.  The 
Senate  upon  April  3  received  a  report  from  the  Committee  on  Terri- 
tories introducing  Senate  Bill  No.  366,  for  the  erection  of  Colorado 
territory;6  while  Grow  of  Pennsylvania  reported  to  the  House  on 
May  10  a  bill  to  erect  in  the  same  region  a  territory  of  Idaho.7 
The  name  of  Jefferson  disappeared  from  the  project  in  the  spring 
of  1860,  its  place  being  taken  by  sundry  other  names  for  the  same 
mountain  area.  Several  weeks  in  the  spring  were  given  in  part  to 
debates  over  this  Colorado-Idaho  scheme  as  well  as  to  the  older 

1  Rocky  Mountain  News,  January  4,  1860. 

2  F.  L.  Paxson,  "  The  Territory  of  Jefferson :  a  Spontaneous  Commonwealth  ", 
in  University  of  Colorado  Studies,  III.  15-18. 

8  A  memorial  of  January  4,  1860,  describes  this  election.  House  Misc.  Doc. 
10,  36  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  Serial  1063,  p.  7.  The  text  of  his  certificate  of  election  is  in 
Rocky  Mountain  News,  August  29,  1860. 

4  Two  letters  written  by   Willing  to   Lewis   Cass,   Secretary  of   State,  are  in 
the  Department  of  State,  Bureau  of  Rolls  and  Library,  in  a  volume  of  territorial 
papers  marked,  Minn.,  Neb.,  Ore.,  Wyom.,  Col.,  D.  C.,  Kan.,  Mich.,  Miscellaneous, 
and  are  brought  to  the  writer's  attention  through  the  courtesy  of  W.  G.  Leland, 
Esq.,  of  the  Carnegie  Institution,  Department  of  Historical  Research. 

5  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  V.  580;  Sen.  Ex.  Doc. 
15,  36  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  Serial  1027;  Cong.  Globe,  36  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  p.  841,  February 
20,  1860;  p.  871,  February  23. 

Ibid.,  1502. 

1 1bid.,  2047,  2066,  2077.  The  memorials  of  Williams  had  been  presented  in 
the  House  by  Green  Adams  of  Kentucky,  on  February  15.  See  under  that  date 
ibid.,  789;  House  Journal,  Serial  1041,  283. 


62  F.  L.  Pax  son 

Dakota,  Nevada,  and  Arizona  territories.  As  in  the  past  sessions 
of  Congress,  the  debate  was  less  upon  the  need  for  the  erection  of 
several  territorial  governments  than  upon  the  attitude  which  any 
bills  should  take  upon  the  slavery  issue.  In  the  demands  of  the 
Republican  leaders  in  the  territorial  debates  from  1858  to  1867  can 
be  measured  the  advance  of  antislavery  attitude,  from  exclusion  of 
slaves  through  guaranties  to  free  negroes,  and  up  to  the  abolition  of 
the  "  white  "  clause  in  the  franchise  qualification.  This  obsession 
of  Congress  by  the  slavery  debate  precluded  territorial  legislation 
in  the  years  1859  arjd  1860,  but  the  session  ended  with  the  reason- 
ableness of  one  of  the  demands  well  presented.  In  a  secondary 
way  the  governmental  argument  was  strengthened  by  petitions  for 
the  service  of  the  mails,  for  post-roads  from  Fort  Laramie  to 
Golden  City  and  from  Atchison  to  Denver.  And  though  on  May 
12  all  of  the  territorial  bills  were  tabled  for  the  session,1  the  need 
for  them  was  clearer  than  it  had  been  at  any  time  since  the  passage 
of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  in  1854. 

The  territory  of  Jefferson,  as  organized  in  November,  1859,  had 
been  from  the  first  recognized  as  merely  a  temporary  expedient. 
The  movement  for  it  had  gained  weight  in  the  summer  of  that  year 
from  the  probability  that  it  need  not  be  maintained  for  many  months. 
When  Congress,  however,  failed  in  the  ensuing  session  of  1859- 
1860  to  grant  the  relief  for  which  the  pioneers  prayed,  the  wisdom 
of  continuing  for  another  year  the  life  of  a  government  admitted  to 
be  illegal  came  into  question.  The  first  session  of  its  legislature 
had  lasted  from  November  7,  i859,2  to  January  25,  1860.  It  had 
passed  comprehensive  laws3  for  the  regulation  of  titles  in  lands, 
water,  and  mines,  and  had  adopted  civil  and  criminal  codes.  Its 
courts  had  been  established  and  had  operated  with  some  show  of 
authority.  But  the  services  and  obedience  to  the  government  had 
been  voluntary,  no  funds  being  on  hand  for  the  payment  of  salaries 
and  expenses.  One  of  the  pioneers  from  Vermont  wrote  home, 
"  There  is  no  hopes  [sic]  of  perfect  quiet  in  our  governmental 
matters  until  we  are  securely  under  the  wing  of  our  National  Eagle." 

1  Cong.  Globe,  36  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  2079-2085. 

2  The  Rocky  Mountain  News  had  the  text  of  Steele's  message  in  its  issue  of 
November  10,  1859.     It  is  also  found  in  House  Misc.  Doc.  10,  36  Cong.,  i   Sess., 
Serial  1063,  pp.  11-15. 

3  Provisional   Laws   and   Joint   Resolutions   Passed    at    the   First   and    Called 
Sessions  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Jefferson   Territory,  Held  at  Denver  City, 
J.  T.,  November  and  December,  1859,  and  January,  1860.     Published  by  Authority 
(Omaha,  N.  T.,  Robinson  and  Clark,   1860,  pp.   298).     The  writer  knows  of  the 
existence  of  only  two  copies  of  this  pamphlet. 

4  Early  Day  Letters  from  Auraria  (now  Denver)  Written  by  Libeus  Barney  to 
the  Bennington  Banner,  Bennington,    Vermont,    1859-1860    (Denver?,    n.    d.,   pp. 
88),  54. 


The  Territory  of  Colorado  63 

In  his  proclamation  calling  the  second  election  Governor  Steele 
announced  that  "  all  persons  who  expect  to  be  elected  to  any  of  the 
above  offices  should  bear  in  mind  that  there  will  be  no  salaries  or 
per  diem  allowed  from  this  territory,  but  that  the  General  Govern- 
ment will  be  memorialized  to  aid  us  in  our  adversity  ".*  Upon  this 
question  of  revenue  it  was  that  the  territory  of  Jefferson  was 
wrecked.  Taxes  could  not  be  collected,  since  citizens  had  onlv  to 
plead  grave  doubts  as  to  legality  to  evade  payment.  "  We  have  tried 
a  Provisional  Government,  and  how  has  it  worked?"  asked  William 
Larimer  in  announcing  his  candidacy  for  the  office  of  territorial 
delegate.  "  It  did  well  enough  until  an  attempt  was  made  to  tax 
the  people  to  support  it."2  More  than  this,  the  real  need  for  the 
government  became  less  apparent  as  1860  advanced,  for  the  scat- 
tered communities  learned  how  to  obtain  a  reasonable  peace  with- 
out it.  American  mining-camps  are  peculiarly  free  from  the  need 
for  superimposed  government.  The  new  camp  at  once  organizes 
itself  on  a  democratic  basis,  and  in  mass-meeting  registers  claims, 
hears  and  decides  suits,  and  administers  summary  justice.  Since 
the  Pike's  Peak  country  was  only  a  group  of  mining-camps,  there 
proved  to  be  little  immediate  need  for  central  government,  for  in 
the  local  mining-district  organizations  all  of  the  immediate  needs 
of  the  communities  could  be  satisfied.  So  loyalty  to  the  territory  of 
Jefferson,  in  the  districts  outside  Denver,  waned  during  1860,  and 
by  the  summer  of  that  year  its  moral  influence  had  virtually  dis- 
appeared. Its  administration  held  together,  however.  Governor 
Steele  made  efforts  to  rehabilitate  its  authority,  holding  an  election  on 
October  22,  1860,  to  choose  a  second  legislature.3  On  November 
12  he  met  his  second  assembly,  he  himself  having  been  re-elected 
by  a  trifling  vote,  to  continue  the  tradition  of  the  territory.  From 
November  12  to  November  27  it  sat  at  Denver ;  then  until  December 
7  it  continued  its  sessions  at  Golden.  And  upon  this  last  day  it 
dissolved  itself  forever.4 

When  the  thirty-sixth  Congress  met  for  its  second  session  in 
December,  1860,  the  Jefferson  organization  was  in  the  second  year 
of  its  life,  yet  in  Congress  there  was  no  more  immediate  prospect  of 
territorial  action  than  there  had  been  since  1857.  Indeed,  the  elec- 
tion of  Lincoln  brought  out  the  eloquence  of  the  slavery  question 
with  a  renewed  vigor  that  monopolized  the  time  and  strength  of 

1  Proclamation    of    September    18,   in   Rocky   Mountain   News,   September    19, 
1860. 

2  Letter  of  August  21,  ibid.,  August  22,  1860. 

3  Bancroft,  410;  Smiley,  321  ;  Hall,  I.  249. 

4  Hollister,  123. 


64  F.  L.  Paxson 

Congress  until  the  end  of  January.  And  had  not  the  departure  of 
the  southern  members  to  their  states  cleared  the  way  for  action, 
it  is  highly  improbable  that  even  this  session  would  have  produced 
results  of  importance. 

Grow  had  announced  in  the  House  on  December  12,  1860,  a 
general  territorial  platform  similar  to  that  which  had  been  under 
debate  for  three  years.1  Until  the  close  of  January  the  southern 
valedictories  held  the  floor,  but  at  last  the  admission  of  Kansas  on 
January  29,  1861,  revealed  the  fact  that  pro-slavery  opposition  had 
departed  and  that  the  long-deferred  territorial  scheme  could  have 
a  fair  chance.2  On  the  very  day  after  Kansas  was  admitted,  with 
its  western  boundary  at  the  twenty-fifth  meridian  from  Washington, 
the  Senate  revived  its  Bill  No.  366  of  the  last  session  and  took  up 
its  deliberation  upon  a  territory  for  Pike's  Peak.3  Only  by  chance 
did  the  name  Colorado  remain  attached  to  the  bill.  Idaho  was  at 
one  time  substituted  for  Colorado,  but  was  amended  out  in  favor 
of  the  original  name  on  February  4  as  the  bill  passed  the  Senate.4 
The  boundaries  were  materially  cut  down  from  those  which  the  terri- 
tory had  provided  for  itself.  Two  degrees  were  at  once  taken  from 
the  north  of  the  territory,  and  after  some  hesitation  over  the 
Green  River  the  western  boundary  was  placed  at  the  thirty-second 
meridian  from  Washington.5  In  this  shape,  between  the  thirty- 
seventh  and  forty-first  parallels,  and  the  twenty-fifth  and  thirty- 
second  meridians,  the  bill  passed  the  Senate  on  February  4,  the 
House  on  February  18,  and  received  the  signature  of  President 
Buchanan  on  February  28. 6  The  absence  of  serious  debate  in  the 
passage  of  this  Colorado  act  is  excellent  evidence  of  the  merit  of 
the  scheme  and  the  reasons  for  its  being  so  long  deferred. 

On  February  28,  1861,  the  territory  of  Colorado  became  a 
legal  fact;  Buchanan  left  it  to  his  successor  to  erect  the  territorial 
establishment.  President  Lincoln,  after  some  delay  caused  by  pres- 
sure of  business  at  Washington,  commissioned  General  William 
Gilpin  as  first  governor  of  the  territory.  Gilpin  had  long  known 
the  mountain  frontier;  he  had  commanded  a  detachment  on  the 
Santa  Fe  trail  in  the  forties,  and  had  written  prophetic  books  upon 
the  future  of  the  country  to  which  he  was  now  sent.  His  loyalty 
was  unquestioned,  and  his  readiness  to  assume  responsibility  went  so 

1  Cong.  Globe,  36  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  p.  81. 

2  Leverett  W.  Spring,  Kansas  (Boston,  1885),  266. 
8  Cong.  Globe,  36  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  p.  639. 

*  Ibid.,  729. 

5  F.  L.   Paxson,  "  The  Boundaries  of  Colorado  ",  in   University  of  Colorado 
Studies,  II.  87-94. 

6  Cong.  Globe,  36  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  pp.  729,  777,  1003,  1206,  1274. 


The  Territory  of  Colorado  65 

far  as  perhaps  to  cease  to  be  a  virtue.  He  arrived  in  Denver 
at  his  new  post  on  May  29,  I86I,1  and  within  a  few  days  was  ready 
to  take  charge  of  the  territory  and  to  receive  from  the  hands  of 
Governor  Steele2  such  authority  as  remained  in  the  provisional  terri- 
tory of  Jefferson. 

FREDERIC  L.  PAXSON. 

1Hall,  I.  266;  Fossett,  106. 

a  Steele  issued  a  proclamation  recommending  the  citizens  to  remain  "  loyal 
and  true  "  to  the  federal  government  on  May  23,  Rocky  Mountain  News,  May  29, 
1861.  He  handed  over  the  government  to  Gilpin  on  June  6.  Smiley,  321,  322. 


AM.  HIST.   REV.,  VOL.  XII. — 5. 


